All you folk wot use Firefox for your Inter-Wave surfing will be aware that a couple of days ago it made a ‘huge leap’ from version 56 to 57.
First thing I noticed was that it do seem a good bit faster. Or they slowed down version 56 so that everyone will be giggly happy with 57.
Anyhoo, the first rattle out of the box was one I was expecting which was the demise of the add-on Sage RSS Feed Reader which, sadly, was my go to sidebar of a coffee time in the morning. Wot I done did find after a little trial and delete, was Feedbro. It imports opml but Sage exports in html so I had to populate Feedbro from scratch. It didn’t take long and if you try it do some digging through the settings an’ such as I now quite like it. Works just fine. So far.
The next thing I found, or rather didn’t find, having done that ‘personalise’ stuff through the FF settings, was a way to move the tab bar down below the address bar. Probably doesn’t bother most folk but, if like me, it irritates you, try this wot I found out there and I had to search many places, take the bits I understood, keep it and continue looking. Eventually, I got to this wot’s below wot I’ve simplified for simple folk like me.
First thing to do is open Note Pad and copy this blue bit, as is, and past it into Note Pad;
/* Puts tabs on the bottom */
#TabsToolbar {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 2;
border-bottom: 1px solid #888 !important;
}
#nav-bar{ border-top-width: 0px !important; }
Then save it some place you’ll remember giving it this name;
userChrome.css
Now you need to find your Firefox profile folder and if you’re not sure where it is, do this. To open the currently used profile copy and paste this about:support in the Firefox address-bar and in the page that opens look down the blue column and you’ll see ‘Profile Folder’ and to the right, ‘Open Folder’. Click on this and you’ll find the path to the profile in use. Look for a folder in that Profile called ‘chrome’. If there isn’t one just add a new folder and name it chrome.
Once you find or have created the chrome folder, just copy/cut and paste the userChrome.css file you prepared earlier into it. Restart Firefox 57 and the tab bar will/should be below the address bar.
Hope it works for you, assuming you’re picky about where the tab bar is. Say what? Didn’t work? No idea then as it worked on two ‘puters for me. Never mind; there’ll be an app along to do it before too long...
Quote; ??
“If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0”
12 comments:
Nice one!
I could get used to the other changes but the tabs really annoyed me. You have saved me some considerable hair loss. Thanks.
Re the comment above... Did you know you have a very annoying commenty yoke! It keeps changing me to Anonymous and asking me if I'm human. I have to keep checking.....
Grandad,
I assume Anonymous is you as well then but just in case...
Anonymous,
Glad it worked for you and happy to help.
However, if it’s you Grandad, I rarely log into Blogger as I compose in Open Live Writer and post directly from that program and I have never looked at the workings of the comment thingy at all but when I get a chance I’ll do a little digging and see what’s what and if ‘permissions’, or whatever, are required.
It's not you - it's Blogger! I wrote my stuff, entered name and web address, checked that I am human and selected preview. It looked okay [apart from the text shooting off the side of the screen]. I selected Publish and again it asked if I was human. At that stage I was beginning to wonder but I selected Yes, and then Publish, not realising it had gone back to damned Anonymous again. What you need is Wordpress!
I use to use Windows Live Writer myself but there isn't a decent Linux alternative so I do all my brainsweating in the Wordpress dashboard now. I'm very happy with that now and wouldn't switch back to Windows for all the Guinness on the planet.
Grandad,
”...wouldn't switch back to Windows for all the Guinness on the planet.” Oh come on! There’s a limit. I’d go Apple for half that.
Okay, as you say it’s Blogger and their ‘authentication’ hoops of fire.
I’m sure you know that Windows live Writer is now Open Live Writer and I just popped over to their place and they’re looking for volunteers to download the code and rewrite it for Linux. To quote them, ”...that would be awesome.” Now there’s a nice little project for you for these cold, dark winter evenings...
Mac - So you want to change a few things in FF? You may already know this but there's no need to go copying/pasting. Just enter 'about:config' into the address bar and you can change anything you want.
Every time there is a new version of FF I can't wait to read the next gripping chapter in its story. Enter 'about:mozilla' to get the biblical text.
And for an extra bit of fun, enter 'about:robots'
Ripper,
Yep, I do know about that old here be dragons’ place but I couldn’t locate anything that looked like it’d lower the Tab Bar. Not saying it isn’t there, just that these old eyes couldn’t spot it.
A hundred years ago Netscape Navigator was good then along came Firefox wot was cool; worked, was quick, safe(?) and infinitely customisable to meet individual ‘needs’. Then the tinkering began. Seems when any sort of software is released it either isn’t ready, doesn’t work and needs patching immediately, or it works just fine so leave it alone, right? No, it really, really needs to be fiddled with.
Mac - The code for Firefox Quantum (57) has been written under a completely different API than v56, which is why it IS much faster. I believe that you will be able to adjust the tab bar position in later releases - that is what I have read anyway.
You may also be interested to know that Firefox IS Netscape Navigator - or at least a descendant. It was originally known as Firebird (the phoenix rising from the ashes of Netscape) This from Wikipaedia:
"The project that became Firefox began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b (or mozilla/browser). After it was sufficiently developed, binaries for public testing appeared in September 2002 under the name Phoenix. This name carried the implication of the mythical firebird that rose triumphantly from the ashes of its dead predecessor, in this case Netscape Navigator which lost the "First browser war" to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The name Mozilla began as the internal codename for the original 1994 Netscape Navigator browser aiming to displace NCSA Mosaic as the world's most popular web browser. The name for this would-be "Mosaic killer" was meant to evoke the building-crushing Godzilla.[1] The name Mozilla was revived as the 1998 open sourcing spinoff organization from Netscape."
Mac - if you are like me, you will hate the square tabs. I have no problem with tabs above the toolbar but the squared off corners on the tabs looks vile. If you want the nice rounded corners back, edit the userChrome.css file and add the following:
/*
* Put rounded corners on tabs
*/
.tab-background {
border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px !important;
border-image: none !important;
}
.tab-line {
display: none;
}
Ripper,
Thanks for you trip down memory lane. Everything seems to move so fast does it not. Remember the wonders of a dial-up modem, being staggered at a 40 MB hard drives and so much more? And now it’s all Broadband this, fibre that, 4G the other, gigabyte loads for all and all available even in your pocket.
As for the css round corners, really, how sad can you get? Yup, I’m right up there. Implemented and yet one more move that helps my old eyes easily spot which tab I’m on.
Many thanks for your time and effort. Now get back to those DIY projects!!
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